The Potion Factory for Fun Faction Finagling

On theme with this month’s RPG Blog Carnival, here’s an idea for arming your next faction without destroying campaign balance.

We began my Murder Hobos campaign as a playtest of the D&D 5E rules using the adventure Lost Mine of Phandelver included in the Starter Set box.

In the final dungeon there’s a mystical spell forge. About the time the PCs discovered this, they freed three trapped demons who ravaged the area, forcing the party to flee. The demons were homebrew and not part of the official adventure.

The demons seek to bring Orcus to the Realms as a new emperor. So, I had the cunning creatures discover the Spell Forge, which the PCs had just removed all dangers from (thanks guys!).

Next, the demons enslaved commoners from nearby settlements and are making them harvest various components night and day.

Using the components and Spell Forge, the demons are now cranking out potions daily and issuing them to minions to give them an added edge.

Flipping through the potions section of my rulebook, I selected six. I choose that number so I’d have a bit of variety, a bit of recurrence, and a number I could roll a dice against if desired. I ended up choosing these brews: